Motivational Procedures in School Settings: The Effect of Individual Adult-Child Conferences in Reading.

Schwenn, Elizabeth A.; And Others

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of individual adult-child conferences in increasing the independent reading of elementary school children. Following an 8-week baseline period, second, fourth, and sixth graders of both high and low reading achievement were randomly assigned to no-conference, teacher-conference, or aide-conference groups. During the 8-week conference period, children met individually with an adult once a week for 5 to 10 minutes. The adults implemented such motivational principles as positive reinforcement, feedback, modeling, and goal-setting. While all three groups increased in number of books read from the baseline to the experimental periods, subjects receiving conferences increased significantly more. The superiority of the conference condition was true for all grades and achievement levels. There was little difference between teacher- and aide-conducted conferences. The conferences did not produce a differential gain in reading achievement, probably due to the relative brevity of the experimental period. References are included. (Author/NH)